strawberry love
by daachan
Summary: College overwork is maddening Die...


**Title:** strawberry love  
**Status:** complete (one-shot)  
**Genre:** AU / humor / romance  
**Rating:** PG or K+  
**Warning:** shonen-ai content, aka boy/boy love  
**Pairing:** Die/Shinya  
**Disclaimer:** I [unfortunately] do not own any member of Dir en Grey, only in my silly and fangirly mind.  
**Summary:** College overwork is maddening Die…  
**Comment:** The first paragraph was originally an entry on my LJ, and edogawa_minako suggested me to start a fanfic with it - and now here it is! C/C are appreciated y(^^ )

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**strawberry love**

Old and worn down black sweatshirt, chocolate bar beside the computer, messy hair that needed to be washed, Japanese pop songs playing in the background, black-bordered glasses, t-shirt with a chocolate stain, eyes getting tiny due to tiredness, hours reading endless texts for an essay...

He passed his right hand through his hair again. Why on Earth he had chosen that topic for his work? Oh, yes, because he got late to the class when topics were presented and that was the only one remaining. Of course, at the end of the semester no one wanted to have much extra work and so no one would pick "art nouveau" as a topic for the final work of a subject called "The influence of arts in graphic design", for the very reason that there was too much to talk about in that! Art nouveau was actually a design style that influenced arts, by the way, so you can have a picture of the annoyance.

Die sighed. His grades weren't really good on that subject, so the essay had to be a masterpiece. He put another piece of chocolate into his mouth and faced his computer screen once more. He was on the last heading! _Great._Just a few more half hours and that agony – which was his classmate fault - would end. Yes, it had been Kaoru's idea to do that subject. He said it'd be easy and as them both needed to fill their timetable, Die agreed.

He stretched his arms, reading the last paragraphs. The thing was that Kaoru had taken a far much easier topic (at least in Die's opinion, who had hated his own) and had finished it a week ago, as he kept pointing out. He probably was happily drinking beer in some bar they used to go. Not that he hadn't invited Die, but the red haired guy not only had to finish his work, he also was almost out of money, and there was still a whole week before his next paycheck.

"Yatta!", he screamed raising both arms, right after reading the last word. He saved his work in a CD to print it the next morning, right before the deadline. But what could he do, all nearby places with a printer closed at 5pm during week and it was already… _damn, 7:56pm!!_ He definitely needed a shower and something other than chocolate to eat, but his mind felt so tired that kept his body resting in the chair for a little longer. It was only interrupted by his cell phone vibrating by his table.

"Moshi moshi?", he answered.

"Senpai!", said a happy voice on the other side. "It's Shinya. Are you busy?"

"Hey, Shin-chan! Ne, stop calling me senpai. Anyway, I've just finished work. What is it?"

"Ok. Oh! I found that movie we wanted to watch! I was wondering if I could come over for us to watch it."

"I guess it's ok…", Die answered, thinking how long it's been since he didn't met his childhood friend.

"Great!", said Shinya. "Ne, have you eaten already?"

"No, but…"

"Fine! I'll be there in fifteen minutes!", and he hung up the phone.

_Wait. Fifteen minutes? Damn I need to shower!_ Die ran to the bathroom and quickly got into the shower. He knew Shinya wouldn't bother to see him with the messy and unwashed hair, neither the dirty shirt. After all, they knew each other for ages, as they were neighbours in their hometown and used to play together all the time. They only got apart when Die was approved in college and had to move. Four years later, when Shinya was approved too, he moved to the same town as Die's, but they didn't live next to each other that time. So they were only able to meet now and then.

After bathing, Die was trying to quickly clean up his stuff when the doorbell rang. He opened the door with a smile, and there was Shinya carrying two plastic bags.

"Kawaii", exclaimed Shinya. "You've just bathed", he completed, looking at Die's wet hair with a giggle.

"Did you like it?", Die asked raising an eyebrow. And with a sexy pose, "It was just for you, babe".

"Yeah, right, baka", replied the younger with a senseless voice. "Now help me with these, please", he said while handing Die one of the bags, "let's take them to the kitchen".

"Oh, Shin-chan! You brought food?" Die felt so grateful, though he'd refuse to admit it.

"Hm… more or less", he replied. "I brought some onigiri in the bag you're holding and dessert on this one. But we still need something else for dinner. What do you have here?"

"I'm afraid that not much more than eggs, and some potatoes… oh, look, there's some furikake, too", he said happily. "But what did you bring for dessert?"

"That's a surprise. Ne, how about some omelets and rice with furikake, then?", proposed Shinya with the cutest face Die could imagine. There was no way to refuse whatever offer he'd made.

As Shinya had brought half of dinner already, Die decided to prepare the omelets himself. While he was cooking, Shinya settled the living room for them to eat watching the movie. In fact, the living room meant a cupboard with a tv and on the other side some cushions on the floor instead of a sofa or futon, because they were so much cheaper and Die was always so out of money… so Shinya settled a towel in front of the cushions, along with a chawan, a pair of chopsticks and a glass (as Die remembered he had some orange juice too) to each of them.

While watching the movie, they were barely eating, as they couldn't stop laughing. Sometimes they'd laugh so hard it made their tummies hurt, and so they had to take a few moments of deep breathing to recover. Die wasn't really sure, but he thought part of the fun was for being both together, enjoying something again. A great moment that night was after they finished dinner and Shinya came with the dessert: strawberry shortcakes, as they loved when they were kids. Die's eyes widened when he saw those. Both of them eat the shortcakes flavoring every piece of them as they were the most delicious things on Earth (that moment, in fact, they were).

When the movie ended, they just let on some random tv show. They kept talking and laughing about some past and present things for a long time, even though they're so tired – specially Die. When the talk came to a break, Die turned himself to better face his friend.

"Thank you for coming, Shin-chan. I really appreciate it…"

"I had a great time too", said Shinya with a smile.

Die stared at him for a few seconds. "I… have something I wanted to tell you…"

Shinya straightened himself up, he looked like a girl ready to hear to her best friends confession. "What?', he raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you finally got a girlfriend..!"

"No, that's not exactly that…", said Die, shaking his head.

"Oh gosh! It's a boyfriend?!". Shinya had the most curious expression, like the day Die decided his friend was old enough and presented Shinya to his porn magazines.

"Stop guessing! Or else you'll drive me crazy", exclaimed Die. And after calming down a little – because he could still feel and hear every beat of his heart, "The thing is… that I… I like you, Shin-chan. It's been quite a while, now".

"Oh come on, Die. That joke ain't fun", said Shinya rolling his eyes. "I thought you were talking about something serious…"

"But this IS serious!", yelled the red haired young man. "I've never been so serious about my feelings my whole life. What can I do for you to believe me, Shin-chan?"

Die looked at his friend. He was blushing, blushing in such a way Die wondered if his cheeks weren't really burning. "I… like you too… Die-nii", admitted Shinya in a whisper.

When he heard that, Die felt his heart would jump out of his mouth. He'd never had imagined his feelings were corresponded. He passed one of his hand through the younger man's hair, lightly brushing it, and got himself closer. He felt a nice and sweet smell, and caressed Shinya's cheeks with the back of his hand. Die closed his eyes and got his friend's lips in a delicate, soft kiss - a perfect first kiss. It tasted like strawberry. It tasted like love. _Maybe it's the shortcakes_, Die guessed.

Their lips parted, and they faced each other. Die was close to floating in clouds. However, Shinya's voice brought him back to his feet.

"Holy shit!", yelled the younger one.

"What?", asked Die a bit disappointed. _Was the kiss that bad?_

"Thank God you're waken!", said Shinya, searching for something among the cushions. "Look what time it is!", he finally pushed his vibrating cell phone and turned the alarm off. "I wake up at this hour because my home is nearer to the campus! If we don't rush we'll get late to our classes and you said you still have to print an essay!", freaked out Shinya, while getting the things from the dinner that still lay in the towel in front of them to the kitchen.

Die was confused. He put his glasses on and looked at the clock on the cupboard. They truly were late, but he didn't remember going to sleep. He remembered something else.

"Hey, Shin-chan. What happened after dinner?"

"What are you talking about? We finished watching the movie and then watched tv. We talked for a while but I guess you were so tired that soon fell asleep, and I stayed because it was too late for going home", he answered while getting the towel from the floor. "You really have an awful memory! You should stop drinking so much".

_Woah. That was a dream? Are you kidding me?_ Die was still sitting on the floor when Shinya came back. "What are you still doing there? Go get your stuff! We still have to pass in my house to get mine!"

Die ran to his bedroom and came back with his knapsack and the CD with his work. Shinya was already waiting for him with the door open. "But what about breakfast?", he asked, while putting the CD inside the bag.

"We'll figure that in our way to the campus", replied the younger man. "Come on, Die, hurry up!", hushed Shinya, pulling Die by his hand. The older one blushed a little, but was secretly smiling to that touch.

_Maybe one day_, thought Die, while locking the door behind them.

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_Words in Japanese (or at least how I understand them) used here, in order of appearence (because no one is supposed to know them):_  
yatta: "i dit it"  
moshi moshi: "hello?", when answering the phone  
senpai: "veteran"  
-chan: suffix used when calling people younger than you (among other uses)  
baka: "silly", "stupid", "idiot"  
onigiri: rice ball, usually in a triangular shape  
furikake: spice based on fish powder  
futon: japanese matress, very versatile, can be used for beds or to form a sofa  
chawan: bowl  
-nii: suffix used when calling people older than you


End file.
